City officials did their jobs to find federal designation

Published 5:12 pm, Tuesday, October 9, 2012

A lot went wrong in the aftermath of last year's two major storms -- particularly with Connecticut Light & Power's protracted response to widespread power outages across the state.

In Danbury, as in most other Connecticut municipalities, there was hardship. A massive cleanup was also needed after Tropical Storm Irene, and again following the late October snowstorm.

That work was expensive, but the city of Danbury is to be commended for following through to make sure it wasn't harder on local taxpayers.

Gross cleanup costs for the October nor'easter nearly doubled city officials' $2 million estimate. And Danbury questioned its bill from Ashbritt Environmental when GPS coordinates indicated that some work charged to the city was actually done elsewhere. There was also a dispute between city officials and Ashbritt about how much material was removed.

But the city founds ways, though various reimbursements, to minimize the bill's impact. And the fact that some roads in Danbury are actually federal property -- a designation that predates the interstate highway system -- was important.

Danbury's expenses for cleaning up those roads -- Aunt Hack, Long Ridge and Wooster Heights among them -- qualify for federal reimbursements totaling $754,000 according to the city.

All told, city officials say Danbury's out-of-pocket cost for a $3.8 million nor'easter cleanup could be $100,000 or less, and the total $4.9 million for both storms, minus reimbursements, boils down to about $260,000.

The federal highway reimbursement might seem like a loophole. But exploiting that designation was due diligence on the part of city leaders, and on behalf of local taxpayers.